


Morning Lattes

by static_abyss



Series: A Collection of Castus fic [2]
Category: Spartacus Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2013-10-18
Packaged: 2017-12-29 19:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/static_abyss/pseuds/static_abyss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castus is a barista and Agron  is his favorite regular.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Lattes

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the October prompt over at the spartacusfanchallenges tumblr, and my second attempt at filling up the Castus tag. Everybody should help me. Go write fic. Write all of the Castus fic.

As far as jobs go, working at Starbucks is definitely better than the job as a waiter that Chadara offered him. Castus prefers Starbucks because the people are better at taking a compliment than the people at Chadara's restaurant. He can flirt without having to worry about getting punched in the face by someone's husband or wife. And there's always something to do here, whether he's running to the back to get more coffee beans, taking orders up front, making drinks, or working the register. 

He works in a relatively small Starbucks, a block away from two other Starbucks in either direction, though the subway station stop across the street means they get enough customers to keep busy. The subway stop also means there are a few people that come in often enough that Castus knows their names and what they're going to order. People tend to be predictable, and someone changing their drink is an exception, not a norm.

There's Naevia, a pretty dark skinned girl, who comes in at 8am, and orders a grande, dark roast, with room for milk. She always smiles at Castus, and when her boyfriend, Crixus isn't with her she lets Castus flirt with her. When Crixus does come in, Castus flirts with him instead. It makes Naevia bite her lower lip to keep from laughing, and it seems to confuse Crixus, who mostly just ends up shrugging and ordering his usual dark roast, black coffee, with no room for milk. It suits him.

There's Mira who works with Naevia in an one of the offices across the street. She comes in about ten minutes after Naevia leaves, her long dark brown hair always tied up in a ponytail, and with her cellphone to her ear. Castus doesn't flirt with Mira because Chadara saw her once and fell in love. Just like that. And Castus isn't about to ruin that for Chadara even though he thinks they should probably talk at some point. Mira is always busy in the mornings anyway, already half working even though most business offices don't open until 9am.

Mira likes the skinny vanilla latte, grande if she's having a bad morning, and a venti if it's a good one. If the coffee shop is advertising a seasonal latte though, Mira will get that instead at least once a week. It makes her slightly less predictable than Castus's other regulars, but he's learned that if Mira glances at the menus in the boards behind Castus, she's getting her vanilla latte.

There are a couple of other people who Castus doesn't know anything about except their coffee order. They're the people who stare too long at the menus even though they already know what they're getting. The kind of people who add extra shots, but don't want whipped cream, and want one pump of syrup, no milk unless it's soy. As if Starbucks could ever run out of soy milk. They want their coffee at just the right temperature and open their recyclable cups at the counter to peer inside. They never return the orders or ask any of the baristas to remake their coffee, but they're annoying as fuck because they put everyone on edge. 

Then, there's the guy who comes in at 8:45am, the big one with the green eyes who's likes to stare at Castus's arms beneath his black Starbucks shirt. Castus knows he looks good and it's nice to get some confirmation on that from a guy who Castus thinks is equally attractive. His name's Agron, and he has the rough, angry thing going for him. And Castus would never think to flirt with a guy like that because he'd be afraid to get punched in the face if he tried. Except, he knows Agron's secret, which is why he can't help the smirk that spreads across his face whenever Agron comes in to order his coffee. 

"Good morning," Castus says, picking up the grande cup for hot drinks. "What are you having?"

Agron narrows his eyes at Castus, and leans forward a little so that he's towering over Castus even with the counter between them. It's slightly unfair, Castus thinks, for Agron to be both tall and good looking. But the view is nice from where Castus is standing so he just goes with it.

"What can I get for you?" he asks Agron, blinking up expectantly. 

"What I always get," Agron answers, even as he glances behind him.

There's a line forming already, but Castus likes watching Agron squirm. It's not that Castus is generally a jerk, but Agron was an asshole the first day Castus started working here and that's defined their relationship since then. Besides, if Agron doesn't like it, there are two other Starbucks he could go to. 

"So the usual then?" Castus asks, winking at Agron.

Agron scowls, but Castus sees the twitch at the corner of Agron's mouth when he looks down to dig bills out of his wallet. Castus takes the money Agron hands him. 

"For your tip jar," Agron says when Castus tries to hand him back his change.

"We don't have tip jars," Castus tells him, but he pockets the 45 cents anyway.

Agron grins and shakes his head as he steps away from the register. Castus slides Agron's cup over to Lugo who takes one look at the letters on the side and loses the smile he'd been wearing all morning.

"What the _fuck_ is a caramel apple spice? You know what? No."

Castus laughs so hard he thinks he might have pulled something. It gets him pretty blush from the girl ordering and a phone number from the guy behind her. 

"I'm not making it," Lugo says. "I don't even know how to work the espresso machine yet."

Lugo has been working with Castus for three months now, and he's still shit at making coffee. But their manager figured out that if Castus was at the front taking orders, people were less likely to care that their coffee was not as good as they'd come to expect. Castus and Lugo also make the most money of any of the morning shifts, so no one really bothered them. Which is why Castus puts Lugo at the register and goes to fill Agron's order himself. 

Castus is good at making coffee because he has practice, and because he's been working at Starbucks' long enough to know how to make the machines do what he wants. He puts a little less caramel syrup in Agron's latte, adds extra whipped cream, and even sprinkles cinnamon on top. It looks good, and Castus can't stand caramel apple spice lattes, but it'll probably taste better than it looks. 

He sees Agron watching him by the pick-up counter and Castus waves at him. Agron half smiles and Castus is glad that they're going with politely flirtatious today. He likes their banter and half-annoyed conversations, but Agron has a really nice smile and Castus doesn't mind seeing it.

"Grande, dark roast, no milk for the tall angry guy," Castus calls out, exaggerating his wink.

"I'm not angry," Agron says, picking up his latte. 

"You didn't give me a name," Castus tells him, picking up the next empty cup.

"You didn't ask for one, and you already know my name."

"Just like I know your order, grande, dark roast, no milk," Castus teases.

Agron doesn't say anything, but Castus can see the tips of his ears go red.

"Thanks," Agron says, finally. "I'll just go now."

Castus lifts a hand in farewell and goes back to making lattes. He's on his third one when Agron comes back. He goes right up to where Castus is flirting with the librarian who only comes in on Wednesdays. 

"What the fuck is this?" Agron asks, shoving his latte at Castus. 

Castus exchanges amused looks with the librarian and says, "It's a latte."

"It's not what I ordered," Agron says, glaring at the cup as though it's offended him.

"It's definitely what you ordered," Castus assures him, as he hands the librarian his coffee.

Agron glares as the librarian passes him, and then he's leaning over the counter towards Castus. "It's not what I ordered," he repeats. "This tastes nothing like what Lugo usually makes."

"That's because Lugo is shit at making things. No offense, Lugo," Castus says.

"None taken," Lugo calls back.

Castus grins and turns back to Agron. "So is there something actually wrong with the thing or did you just miss me?"

Agron narrows his eyes at Castus. "I don't like you," he says.

"Wish the feeling was mutual," Castus says. "But I kind of like you. If only for your face."

"Can't say the same thing about your face though," Agron answers.

Castus isn't even bothered. "Are you going to admit I can make a fucking amazing drink or are you going to glare at me all day?"

"It was lukewarm," Agron manages to say, as he snatches his cup back off the counter. "And there was too much whipped cream."

"There's never too much whipped cream."

"Not enough cinnamon."

"Just the right amount of cinnamon," Castus says.

"It's still a shitty drink," Agron tells him, and then he's out the door before Castus can say anything else.

Castus watches him go. All in all, Castus thinks Agron is kind of a dick, but Castus doesn't help things by being an asshole. So they're both constantly a little annoyed with each other, but _fuck_ , the hate sex they could be having would be great. Agron's got all that muscle and the angry green eyes, and Castus probably has a thing for rough sex, which just means they'd be really good together. Not that that's all Castus thinks about when Agron gets angry at him. He thinks about punching Agron in the face pretty often too.

Either way, it's a shame Agron said no the first time Castus asked him out.

-

The whole thing is Chadara's idea because it turns out she knows Agron's brother, Duro. And according to Duro, Agron won't shut up about how fucking annoying Castus is. Which Castus doesn't think is a good thing, until Chadara assures him that it is, because Duro said, and "Duro's his brother, he should know."

So the next time Agron comes in and orders his usual, Castus makes him a vanilla latte instead. He'd asked Chadara why she thought it was a good idea to change Agron's drink when the guy has only ever ordered the same thing for as long as Castus has been making his drinks. Chadara had just looked at Castus, and then gone on to explain that Agron needed to experiment.

"You're not his usual type," she'd said. "That's why he won't ask you out even though he wants to. So show him that he doesn't have to stick with the same boring thing. Show him that change is a good thing."

Chadara had used hand gestures and everything. She'd been on her way to getting drunk on Castus's couch by then too, but the idea stuck. 

Castus is really only into it because he kind of wants to see Agron's face when he doesn't get what he ordered. Also because he can't seem to stop trying to find new ways to annoy Agron.

Agron takes his drink, waves goodbye and is halfway to the door when he takes his first sip. Castus doesn't even pretend to be making drinks when Agron comes back.

"What did you give me?" 

"Good, right?" Castus asks.

"No," Agron says. "It's not."

But he doesn't ask Castus to change the drink.

-

The next day, Castus gives Agron a green tea latte.

"It's green," Agron says. 

"It's good," Castus assures him. "You know it's good. You already tried it."

"I didn't order a green tea latte," Agron says, but he's drinking it anyway. "I don't even like tea."

"There's espresso in it," Castus says, even as he goes about making more lattes.

He and Lugo had a 10% increase in sales yesterday, so Lugo's taken over the cash register for the week. 

"You need to stop changing my drinks," Agron tells Castus.

"You need to order something different," Castus answers.

Agron lets out an exasperated sigh, takes his latte, and leaves.

-

Agron's tried the Earl Grey latte, chocolate white mocha, regular mocha, and the caramel latte before he gives up complaining.

"I just better not get a pumpkin spice," Agron tells Castus, as he takes the new drink.

The next latte Castus makes for Agron is, of course, pumpkin spice.

"I hate you," Agron says when Castus tells him what flavor latte Agron's drinking. "How?"

Castus smirks. "I'm really, _really_ good at what I do. I'm also really good at other things."

Agron stares a beat too long, exhales, and smiles. "Oh," he says. "Like what?"

Castus can't help his grin. "Why do you want to know now?" he asks.

Agron shrugs. "You make good coffee."

"So you're only in it for the coffee?"

"Why else?"

Castus takes his time looking Agron up and down. He's never asked Agron where he works, and he's seen Agron in jeans about as many times as he's seen him in suits, so that gives him no clue. 

"What?" Agron asks.

"I'm trying to decide if I like your face enough to let you use me," Castus says.

"You do," Agron says.

Castus takes a moment to consider. "Where do you work?"

"At the Chase banking offices two streets down," Agron answers. "Why?"

"There's a Starbucks right across the street from there," Castus says, even though he has no idea if there is.

"I like this one better," Agron says. "It's...pleasing to the eye."

Castus bites his tongue to keep from saying anything, but he's grinning so he thinks Agron gets the idea. "Go out with me," he says.

"Why?" Agron asks.

Castus frowns. "Because, I like you?"

Agron narrows his eyes, and Castus is starting to think maybe he read the guy wrong and Agron really isn't interested. Although, Castus doesn't understand how there's any way that he misread Agron's flirting. But then Agron's smiling, an amused glint in his eyes.

"Good," he says. "I'll call you."


End file.
